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Poverty can strike anyone at any time. Things happen in life, whether through the fault of the stricken or due to outside influences beyond the sufferers control, things happen. As I read an article called "How to Preach about Poverty" written by Dale
Hanson Bourke, I was hit over the head, hard.
* "After talking to people and scratching beneath the surface," Dale said, "I discovered that many Christians believe that people are poor because they don’t work very hard, lack good values, or aren’t really motivated. There is an underlying assumption that poor people are different from the rest of us."
I had to ask myself: "Could we Christians really have that kind of an attitude about the poor?" I looked hard, searched deep within my own heart following that, and as sad as it is to say, I used to look down my nose at certain people, yes, even the poor. In the following article, I'll show you five different scenarios or faces of poverty. At the end of this article, I pray that you'll be able to see for yourself why looking down on the poor can hinder our walk with Christ.
Scenario number one: Imagine that you're a woman with two small children and you're a victim of domestic violence. As he's beating the stuffing out of you, or one of your children, the most terrifying threat that he's ever uttered rings in your ears once again: "If you ever leave, I'll find you and when I do, I'll kill you." Because of that threat, even if you had family or friends who were willing and able to take you and your children in and help you out, you're too afraid to put them at risk.
With no other alternatives ahead of you, though you're facing homelessness, possibly even worse, almost anything looks better to you than your children witnessing your husband beat you--or perhaps them--on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. You wait until after your husband has fallen asleep or has gone to work the following day to flee. In desperation, you take your kids and run with only the clothing on your backs; you didn't have enough time to pack anything because you know that your husband will either call at lunchtime to make sure you're home waiting for him or awaken in the night to discover you and the children missing and you need every precious minute to put as much distance between him and you.
You run to a faraway place, to a different state, where you pray daily that your abusive husband won't ever find you. What else could you do but go to the state and ask for help? Until you can get a job that'll pay you enough to support yourself and your children, though it's humiliating, you find yourself living on food stamps and possibly welfare.
People suggest that you get him for child support, but you refuse for fear that he'll find you or worse: he'll gain visitations with your children every other weekend and beat them. Think taking him to court is an option? Forget it... you don't have the money to hire an attorney, let alone put food on the table.
How could her poverty be her own fault?
Scenario number 2: You're a picture of perfect health, you're proud because you've never missed a day of work. Your supervisor has told you that you're next in line for a promotion because you're the best worker he has. One day, you wake up and you're feeling a little sick. You go to work and by the end of the day, you're so sick that you're considering a trip to the emergency room. The following week your doctor informs you that the tests came back positive: you have cancer. The following month, your bank account is drained from the copays that you've been paying for your cancer treatments, your medications, your regular bills.
How would you respond if someone called you lazy, or different, or unmotivated?
Scenario number 3: You're driving to work one day and the traffic on the freeway ahead has come to a complete stop, so you stop. If you don't
you'll rear end the person ahead of you. Just as your waiting for the traffic to move again, you're slammed from behind, hard. Following that, due to the pain, you're helpless to do much, even getting dressed in the mornings has become a challenge.
How would you feel if someone told you that you were lazy, or lack good values because you can't work?
Scenario number 4: Imagine, if you will, being a parent and being forced to decide whether to buy dinner or put gasoline in your car so you can get to work, the only job you could find that you're qualified for. Deciding to put food on the table, now you have no other choice but to hitchhike to work and back, which will only add several additional hours to your already long commute. You'd go to college, train for a better job, but you have to care for your sick spouse and children, or your aging parents, when you return home. You're exhausted and there's no end in sight.
Does it make you lazy because you're not trying to train for a better career?
Scenario number 5: Imagine being elderly, only getting a meager three-hundred dollar social security check and, knowing that because you've been having to cut your blood pressure pills in half, you're facing imminent stroke or heart attack. You're left with no other options if you want to eat or pay for electricity, or pay the property taxes on your home so it doesn't go up for auction and you thank God for what little you do have. You figure that a little help with your sky-high blood pressure is better than nothing. Sure, you've seen those ads for the free medicine, but you can't spare the twenty dollars for each prescription that the company still demands, claiming it's for "other expenses incurred". And don't consider your sickly middle-aged son or daughter for financial help because they're barely making ends meet themselves.
Does this make you a loser?
This poverty is very real folks... it's happening in our neighborhoods, in the schools that our kids are attending, in the elderly woman's home just up the street. No one wants to be homeless, penniless, or any other terrible thing that can happen in life; things just happen. The majority of the people who are ill, injured or are facing other terrible financial circumstances would give just about anything to be productive, to be able to care for their family financially, but they can't. The people who are living examples of the above scanarios should never be considered lazy, careless, or even worthless.
Please, don't treat a poor person with contempt. Treat the poor like you yourself would want to be treated because any of the above scanarios could happen to you. Your life could be changed for better or worse in the blink of an eye. As Christians, we need to live what Jesus taught us in Matthew 25 where He said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." If we look down on the poor, we're looking down on Jesus. Most of all, since God made them too, He loves them too; therefore, let's treat them like dearly beloved family members because that's who they really are in Jesus.
More than anything above, the thing I want you to do the next time you see a poor person, or even someone who is homeless is to bring the following verse to mind: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2 KJV)
At the very least, I hope you will take the time to read Dale Hanson Bourke's article called "How to Preach about Poverty" at:
http://www.pastors.com and take what he said to heart because it could literally change the face of Christianity and make us more Christ-like.
* Quote taken from an article by Dale Hanson Bourke called: "How to Preach about Poverty"
http://www.pastors.com
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